‘The Big Conn’ Apple TV+ doc tackles fraud
Social Security fraud is no laughing matter. In 2020 a Lake County woman who fraudulently claimed just under $200,000 in disability payments was sentenced to 15 years of jail time in federal prison and similar cases around the country show that when you defraud the government, the penalties are steep.
However, when a charismatic lawyer who loves Pepsi almost as much as his 16 wives, a judge with a flair for the fine arts and several doctors concoct a scheme that results in over half a billion dollars in fraud, things get a little absurd.
“The Big Conn,” a new true crime docuseries from the makers of “McMillion$” landed on Apple TV+ this week and recounts the story of Eric C. Conn, a Kentucky lawyer who was accused of facilitating the biggest Social Security scam ever before fleeing the country.
Conn’s self-written manifesto, which details both how he committed
the fraud and his justification for it, frames the four-part series, which not only shows how the lawyer gamed the SSA’s disability
insurance program but also exposes some of the weaknesses and failures of the larger Social Security system, which left
hundreds of people with legitimate disabilities without benefits in the wake of the crime.
James Lee Hernandez, one of the producers and directors of the documentary alongside Brian Lazarte said that he really wanted to use the documentary to showcase multiple sides of a complex issue.
“I mean, for Eric, obviously, like, here’s your ... criminal, at the centerpiece of the story that pulls off the largest Social Security fraud case in history, gets away with it for 10 years and then in true Hollywood fashion goes on the run,”
said Hernandez. “You’re instantly captivated by this real-life Saul Goodman type character, but then you’ve got this whole other side of it.”
As was the case with “McMillion$,” “The Big Conn” makes heavy use of dramatization and moments of levity to help the viewer feel like they’re right in the middle of a story that is oftentimes too crazy to believe. And while much of the series focuses on Conn’s larger-than-life personality, Hernandez and Lazarte wanted to make sure that viewers understand some of the larger issues with the Social Security system.
“The goal of our documentary series was to put all the boring stuff aside,” Hernandez said. “We understand that Social Security isn’t the thing that is going to suck people in, but we hopefully break it down in a really easy to digest manner so that you can understand, like, this affected a lot of people and how somebody could actually pull off a crime like this.
“There are people that are still to this day fighting to try and get their benefits back that needed [them] and they’re at risk of never being able to see another dime and who knows how they will be able to provide for themselves.”
The documentary series is now streaming in its entirety on Apple TV+, and for those who want to dig deeper, a companion podcast has also been released on Apple Podcasts which includes additional details that didn’t make it into the show.